August 2007 Presidential Update

Welcome to another academic year-the 90th at EMU. To those faculty, staff, and students new to EMU, it is my practice to write a monthly update which is sent to everyone in the campus community and posted on the EMU website for external audiences to read. In most cases, I offer some reflections on recent events, provide information on what is ahead, and often a comment that is more personal. It is impossible to include all that is happening on the campus, and I can only write from my perspective.

I welcome communication via email and deeply value the opportunity to interact with individuals or groups in person, so much as my schedule allows. With the support and encouragement of the Board of Trustees, following the presidential review of the past year, Pat and I are attempting to reduce the number of out-of-state church visits to one time per month. Given the number of invitations we've received and the importance of continuing an EMU presence in congregations, it will be a significant challenge to limit the schedule.

So, we will violate that principle in the first month of this academic year! Because we are already in Iowa this coming weekend for a niece's wedding, Tim Swartzendruber and I will visit East Union Mennonite Sunday morning. On September 16 I will preach at Groffdale Mennonite, the day after the Goshen vs. EMU soccer games at Lancaster Mennonite School. As a result of the EMU victory over Goshen College last year I enjoyed a bottle of maple syrup courtesy of a small "wager" with James Brenneman, president of Goshen. If we lose to Goshen this fall I will have to send him a Virginia ham! I've already warned him that a salty Virginia ham is not good for presidential blood pressure. Go Royals!!

A major event of the past summer was the Mennonite Church USA adult and youth convention in San Jose. EMU was well represented by numerous faculty and staff, some there in their roles as youth sponsors or spouses of delegates. By most accounts the EMU booth was very popular with the high school students throughout the entire week.

While in San Jose, Phil Helmuth, executive director of development and church relations, joined me for a visit to SRI, Inc., in Menlo Park. We met the CEO and the research vice president most directly responsible for the new SRI facility near the EMU campus. The local director, Dr. Krishna Kodukula, will be visiting EMU science students and faculty this fall to provide an update on their plans. The expectation is that SRI will be breaking ground for their $13 million laboratory in October. The plan is to have up to 100 Ph.D. researchers working at the facility within the next five years. We fully anticipate many opportunities for our students and faculty to participate in research projects when the facility is functioning.

I am very pleased with the efforts to organize a "Creation Care Council" at EMU. The Strategic Planning Council (President's Cabinet, several faculty, and students) approved the concept at our retreat on August 19. As I noted in my Fall Convocation address this week, this council will comprise many faculty, staff, and students, and it will give leadership to bringing sustainability interests to many facets of life on campus.

The Strategic Planning Council also approved the formation of a Residential Housing Planning Task Force. A cross-section of campus folks will begin meeting soon to study future residential housing needs. The task force is charged with making recommendations to the President's Cabinet which will be processed by the Board of Trustees during the coming year.

Many faculty and administrators are busy putting together program plans for a new addition to the science center (mostly new labs) and the renovation of the current Suter Science building. Several architects will be back on campus September 24-25 for another round of planning. Our plan is to present a conceptual plan to the board in March 2008, with construction to commence when funding is committed for the project. We are busy presenting proposals to donors for major gifts to fund what we imagine may be a $22-24 million total project.

Our fall enrollment numbers are still fluctuating slightly as they always do at the beginning of each term. The number of first-year, transfer and readmitted students increased slightly over last year. The report today from David Detrow, university registrar, is that the number of traditional undergraduate students is 874 FTE, compared to 888 last fall.

This year we admitted the 11 fewer students "conditionally" than last fall. We also denied admission to more students this year. The result of being more selective resulted in a higher average SAT score for the incoming first year class. We believe this will strengthen our retention from fall to spring as compared to last year. By mid-September we will be able to report precise numbers for all programs in the university.

Orientation participants were very complimentary of the personal attention, sense of well-being, and helpfulness of the EMU faculty and staff. They were particularly amazed at the quality of service delivered in spite of major weather challenges throughout the weekend.

On Friday, September 21, The Most Rev. Desmond Tutu will receive the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence's top honor, the Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award. The public is invited to the event at 7 p.m. at JMU Convocation Center. I am hoping that many EMU folks will be present. Archbishop Tutu received the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

Books I'm reading: Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith; Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent; William T. Sturtevant, The Artful Journey: Cultivating and Soliciting the Major Gift; Wendell Berry, What are People For?

Loren

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